Andy O

Would love to see Clarkson given the start this week and next, the Irish 18 jersey is there for him if he can just get the minutes

This game isn’t the be all and end all, Munster will likely enjoy a pretty facile win next week over a rotated Gloucester, then Ospreys, then 2 more proper inter pro tests, +Toulon away, before the 6N squad is picked. After last week, there aren’t that many opportunities at the same time…

Tom Farrell, personally I see it as indisputable that Farrell is the best Irish 13 with the ball in hand, matching up with England’s 13 in a highly confrontational Bath midfield would also underline his credentials significantly…

Jack Crowley, likely injured, so probably moot, performing v the Lions and Scottish 10 after the WC draw would be just lovely 🙏

Craig Casey, Casey is a far better player than Spencer imho, he’s unlikely to get the platform that Spenser will, but he’s more than capable of getting back to him best after a patchy autumn…

Gavin Coombes, look I don’t know what the guy has to do, but a big performance here underlines his credentials, yet again…

Tom Aherne, the 6 jersey for Ireland is up for grabs, Baird is injured, Izuchukwu struggles to stay fit, a big performance here (and staying fit) could catapult him ahead of Beirne/Prendergast…

Edwin Edogbo should walk into the 6N squad at least as a training panelist, but 2nd row requires change for Ireland and matching England’s most physical pack on their turf could change his trajectory entirely, even from the bench 🙏

Micheal Milne imho is neck and neck with Jack Boyle, he gets to match up with Thomas du Toit, without his Bok mates, Mikey doesn’t have to win the battle, but doing a lot better than Porter/McCarthy is achievable and would be huge.

Absolutely huge weekend for a bunch of Munster players… 13pt underdogs away to Bath seems way too much, it probably factors in Crowley being out. Not suggesting Munster have to win, they can. But this is THE platform for lots of lads to put their hands up for Ireland selection…

Joxer goes to Townsville territory that

Gregor Townsend is the greatest rugby coach of all time, a rugby savant, Scotland should count their lucky stars that they have him AND ensure he his HC until after the ‘27 World Cup 🙏

Munster have given away the most pens in the URC, Ulster the highest pens per game and Leinster the most cards… Irish teams might want to cop on going into Europe this weekend!!!

Connacht have given away the 2nd lowest number of pens, best boys in class.

Munster’s 2nd half reversal at Thomond Park denied a sweep of victories for the Irish clubs, for the first time since URC RD12 in the 23/24 season, 23rd March 2024. Unlikely to see it happen in 2025 now.

Leinster had brought on RG Snyman early to add some additional power upfront.

Awarded repeated close range pens, what ya gonna do?!? Kick to the corner of course, bang at the line, held up, standard. Sure why would you take the scrum?

Dragons had lost their TH lock through injury just before HT had no 2nd row on the bench (where have I seen this movie before), their 21yo #6 (who hasn’t played a senior game at 2nd row) was deputising, he then went off injured too…

By this stage Leinster had won 4 scrum penalties, they had clear scrum dominance. Dragons had been warned by the ref about repeated scrum pens in the 1st half…. Any pen, but particularly a scrum pen was a certain yellow for Dragons…

Increasingly difficult not to think that Leinster are a poorly coached team…

In the 3rd quarter of last nights’ match Leinster won successive penalties in the Dragons 22, the ref issued Dragons a yellow card warning. What Leinster did was baffling…

No, I’m really not pretending. Genuinely expect Munster, with the 23 they have picked and the place they are in, to batter them. Doesn’t mean you’re winning it all, it’s just the next step for this team. I can’t stand the Stormers and am dying for this to happen.

Powder puff team, missing their best 5 players! Ok they battered Leinster missing 20 players, fair play, beat the 2 Italian teams, the worst Scarlett’s team in my lifetime and the Ospreys at home… the table lies, you’ll win by at least 15

You’ll batter them, there will be no controversy

Rugby is in trouble… it’s a very difficult game to ref but the game has wrapped itself in knots and we have way too much ref controversy. The ref is much more influential that say a winger in determining the outcome of a close match

That was a shocking call and ridiculous explanation

Only youngsters Joe McCarthy & Jack Crowley and the returning Ross Byrne and Iain Henderson broke into the squad in ‘23 after not being included in ‘22. So anyone outside the squad this autumn, really could do with hitting the ground running with their club, this weekend!!

Autumn ‘22 - 37 man squad, 25 went to the WC (4 injured)

6N ‘23 - 37 man squad, 33 went to the WC

6N ‘22 - 37 man squad, 28 went to the WC (Lowe was injured and not selected)

Summer ‘22 - 40 man squad, 28 went to the WC (Kelleher was injured)

Of the 33 players selected for the ‘23 WC, 29 were selected in the Irish squad right through ‘22 and ‘23, if a player doesn’t get picked for the upcoming 6N, then they really are up against it and their chances reduce with subsequent every squad omission…

The draw for the ‘27 World Cup takes place next Wednesday. The tournament kicks off in 672 days.

So there’s loads of time for players to play themselves into selection contention? Eh, nope….

Meanwhile Toulouse have made Dupont the most expensive rugby player in the world and are actively pursuing bargain basement signings like World Cup winner Jean Kleyn and 2024 6N player of the tournament Tammaso Menoncello

Criminal prosecutors don’t really like companies allegedly concealing the true nature of large international payments… the Toulouse prosecutor has opened an investigation and a whole host of new allegations have come out in French media today.

It gets worse… the alleged mechanism through which Jaminet was to be paid was a bogus commercial investment in tiny Pacific island New Caledonia and ultimately that 0.5m went missing…